Giroux's recovery ahead of schedule, takes to ice with stick

Philadelphia Flyers right wing Wayne Simmonds (17) celebrates with center Claude Giroux (28) after scoring during the third period of an NHL hockey game against the Pittsburgh Penguins in Pittsburgh, Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2013. The Flyers won 6-5. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

PHILADELPHIA — Claude Giroux’s recovery continues to roll along, more at the pace of a skulled long iron than a lofty wedge.

“I’m feeling better,” Giroux said Friday, nearly a month after he splintered the shaft of his pitching wedge in a golf game, impaling his right hand in the process.

The freak injury — and freakier swing — resulted in tendon surgery for Giroux, something that threatened to keep him from doing any kind of real offensive drills until a couple of weeks into the exhibition season.

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But Giroux continued ahead of schedule on this day, participating in two practices without a splint on the hand, and having no apparent problems taking wrist shots while on the ice. This despite his speculation Wednesday that it might be another week before he seriously tried using a stick on the ice.

“It feels really good,” Giroux said. “I’m just going step by step. I know I can’t be rushing it, but I wasn’t shooting the puck hard. I was just seeing what I can do.”

He can do a lot more than he was supposed to be doing at this point, but at least some of that good fortune with this recovery is emblematic of the intensity with which Giroux is approaching this season. A good reason for that may be that his first go as a Flyers captain last season resulted in the team missing the playoffs for only the second time in 18 years.

Maybe he took that a bit too personally. That might be why his bosses deemed it beneficial to do some surgery on a Flyers locker room that housed a lot of young ears. So via free agency came Vinny Lecavalier and Mark Streit, better known as respective captains of the Tampa Bay Lightning and New York Islanders.

The thinking being it takes one old “C” to get to know a still somewhat new “c.”

“He’s the type of guy, from what I hear, that leads by example,” Lecavalier said. “He’s our captain, he’s our leader. But he’s got a guy like Mark Streit here who has been around, and I’ve been around for a while as well. I think we’re all going to help each other and push each other.”

Lecavalier also referenced Kimmo Timonen, who last season was assigned as Giroux’s “associate captain” and served as captain years ago in Nashville, and other vocal veterans like Scott Hartnell and Max Talbot.

“Claude is a leader and captain, but there’s also a good group of veteran players that can help him out,” Lecavalier said, “and they can help each other out.”

Giroux has also been around long enough to see how former captains Mike Richards and Chris Pronger dealt with locker room issues.

“Every captain has their way of being captain,” Giroux said. “Look at a guy like (Richards). He would just go on the ice and that’s how he would show his leadership. And Pronger’s good with words, and obviously good on the ice but when he gets up in the room, guys listen.

“At the end of the day, it’s not what you say, it’s what you do. That’s how you get respect from the other players.”

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At his coaches’ insistence, third line center Sean Couturier has worked to put on six or seven pounds of muscle to a frame that opposing forwards frequently fought off last season.

“I went home to get bigger and stronger and feel I’ve done a pretty good job,” Couturier said Friday. “I’m stronger and my skating is more powerful as well.”

Couturier is trying to rebound from a generally disappointing post-lockout campaign. He scored only four goals and 15 points in 46 games. But when asked what part of his game could use improvement, Couturier said, “A little bit of everything.”

“Last year my defensive game kind of lacked sometimes,” he added. “I’ve always been a two-way player no matter what I do. I know I can produce offensively. I just have to go out and show what I can do.”

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NOTES: Flyers chairman Ed Snider hinted Friday that concussed defenseman Marc-Andre Bourdon indeed could be heading for the long-term injury list, which would mean he’d miss the season and his salary would come off this season’s cap. ... The Flyers open the exhibition season Sunday against the Maple Leafs in London, Ontario, and will get a look at rules tweaks, including new net dimensions that are four fewer feet in depth and angles differently at the top. Essentially, this creates space behind the net for more playmaking. “I kind of got a glimpse of what it might be like, but you’ve got to get your butt in there, and see if you’re going to hit the back bar or how far your feet go in the net,” Ray Emery said. “But I it’s going to generate some plays around the net.”